Home Local Sports Injuries plague Raiders against Pinecrest

Injuries plague Raiders against Pinecrest

Members of the Richmond soccer team attempt to clear the ball inside the box during Monday's loss to Pinecrest. (Kyle Pillar, sports editor)

ROCKINGHAM — Injuries and an unfortunate game of musical chairs hindered the Richmond Senior High School boys’ soccer team Monday.

Unable to take down the current leader of the Sandhills Athletic Conference like they did last Thursday, the Raiders lost to Pinecrest High School 5-0.

Richmond played most of the first half without starting center back Dougie Dickinson, who left early on after a lower body injury. That moved senior Gonzalo Gonzalez, normally a center midfielder, to the back line.

Already without senior starting goalkeeper Adrian Padron (prior injury), junior Camden Williams made the start and exited the game after a collision with senior teammate Daryan Mendez in the 43rd minute.

Dickinson returned in the second half, but Williams and Mendez remained sidelined. Padron played in goal for part of the second half, only to be replaced by Gonzalez.

“We didn’t set ourselves up well tonight,” head coach Chris Larsen said. “We didn’t come out with the same intensity as we had against Southern Lee last week. Pinecrest was more physical and aggressive than we were, which caused us to not be fully committed with some tackles.

“That resulted in some of the guys getting banged up,” he continued. “We held onto the ball a little bit too long tonight. I told the guys we weren’t the same team that showed up the other night and it showed at halftime.”

Scoring all three of Pinecrest’s goals in the first half was Harrison McMinimy. His first goal was a run in the box (5th minute), followed by a redirect on a corner kick (28th minute) and a 1v1 from close range (36th minute).

The second half featured goals from Willy Herold (50th minute) and Trevor Franklin (75th minute). Pinecrest improved to 10-2 overall and 6-0 against SAC opponents.

“I thought we played a better second half,” Larsen commented. “Some of the guys who haven’t played a lot this year were able to get some minutes against a quality opponent. I’m glad to see what they were able to do and see that they’ve been working hard in practice to get ready to step up for their time.

Advertisements

“Adrian still isn’t 100% and he went in for Camden after he had contact with Daryan,” he closed. “Hopefully they’ll both be alright. It was moving a bunch of pieces around tonight to make it work. And hopefully we can regroup and see if we can’t take one on the road Wednesday.”

Richmond (3-10-2, 2-4-1 SAC) heads to Hoke County High School (8-6-2, 2-4-1 SAC) Wednesday for its second conference match of the week. Play will begin at 7 p.m.

JV Raiders’ comeback thwarted

The Richmond junior varsity boys’ soccer team erased a two-goal deficit but ended a tally short Monday. 

Also hosting Pinecrest, Richmond suffered its first conference loss of the season 3-2 to Pinecrest.

Trailing 2-0, a penalty kick goal by freshman Allen Franco cut the deficit in half. Fellow freshman Ari McLendon netted a header off a Franco assist to knot the score 2-2. 

The JV Patriots scored the winning goal on a PK in the final seven minutes. 

“We didn’t come ready to play tonight,” head coach Bennie Howard said. “We made some silly mistakes that we don’t normally make and it cost us. 

“We were fortunate to make it 2-2 but gave up a PK,” he added. “Our emotions got the best of us, hopefully we use that as a learning experience and get ready for Hoke.”

The JV Raiders (7-5-2, 4-1-1 SAC) also head to Hoke County Wednesday for a match that will start at 5 p.m.